Multimedia customer care center having a layered control architecture

Abstract

The architecture of a multimedia customer care center (100) is divided into three separate application layers: a contact layer (104), a communications layer (106) and a business layer (108). The contact layer comprises media-specific handlers (200–212) that manage their media-specific resources, connect customer contacts to resources (220) and report events, including status to the communications layer. The communication includes media-independent software (106) that manages shared resources, that tracks, accumulates, and reports events reported by the contact layer, and that directs handling of events by the contact layer according to business information. The business layer includes software (108) that provides an interface to the customer contact center for the business that is served by the center. It manages business services by supplying business information that defines the services and business goals to the communications layer, and generates reports from information accumulated by the communications layer. It effects scheduling and adherence tracking of resources. It also provides workflow control capability or interfaces to pre-existing workflow systems.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD[0001]This invention relates to customer care centers, also referred to as call centers or automatic call distribution systems.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Automatic call distribution (ACD) systems and the call centers that are built around them have traditionally been designed to distribute incoming or outgoing voice telephone calls of a business among a pool of agents for handling. However, recent technical and social advances require a reconsideration of how call centers are designed. They include the following:[0003]More and more businesses want to blend the handling of incoming and outgoing calls, and to do so efficiently.[0004]Maturing and widespread use of the Internet has increased the amount of electronic mail that businesses receive from customers, and these transactions need to be measured, tracked, and handled in ways similar to voice calls.[0005]As access to the Internet has become common through Web browsers, businesses have found that Web pages are ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0010]The basic differences from the prior art are the inclusion of other communications media in the architecture in an integrated manner without relying on the voice-call base to perform functions not yet available on platforms that support those other media. The separation of control into layers allows aggregation of data from various platform types by allowing each platform to concentrate on the data that it requires in order to perform its functions while meeting a common interface to combine media contacts into a unified communication, as opposed to force-fitting other media into a voice paradigm. It further correlates a plurality of customer contacts separated in time into a single business transaction. This bridges the gap between individual contacts and allows a business to determine how best to balance the business-layer implementation with any workflow tracking application that may already be in place. Advantages provided by this architecture include the following. It provides a logical architectural foundation that satisfies architectural goals such as covering any medium, uniform handling of different media, integrating the customer care center with business data, configuring and tracking via business statements, separating “areas of concern”, and providing for easier integration and for looser coupling. It maintains existing implementations and platforms to some degree, thereby avoiding the need to replace, as opposed to build upon, existing systems. It allows sharing of resources between applications. It simplifies addition of handlers to deal with new media. It allows measurement of communications across media. It allows a higher level of abstraction with respect to measurements of communications. It allows for simpler management of resources that are shared by different media. The layered model organizes care center complexity so that it is easier to deal with in implementation, maintenance, and modification. It facilitates working with business applications. It allows for hiding of information, in that each layer must deal only with data that are relevant to its functions. It allows the business to operate with constructs and concepts that are familiar to the business. It allows for aggregation and measurements of multiple contacts into a single communication. It provides flexibility. And it provides reliability because lower layers can function without higher layers.

Problems solved by technology

However, recent technical and social advances require a reconsideration of how call centers are designed.

This results in the use of the voice-only solutions as an expedient but inadequate way of solving the broader problem.

Images